That may or may not be the case.
The risk to small business is that its management becomes so stressed that they become myopic in their view. Cabinetmakers focus on making cabinets as opposed to managing their businesses. Accountants focus on the books and engineers go into the shop to tinker.
We all tend to do what brings us pleasure and comfort when we are stressed. This is not a response characteristic of upper management. We all do it. So what should you do?
Just as the economy cycles, the coaches at the Daley Institute for Business Transformation recommend a three-phase process that is repeated every three years.
The most successful businesses use such a three-year cycle to re-evaluate their business and its markets, and to set a direction for the upcoming years.
They seek to understand every aspect of their business and how it is doing within the context of their target market. (This is the era of information overload. Yet most businesses still do not collect sufficient information and/or analyze it routinely.)
The first phase of the cycle is to bring together a team of professionals that can evaluate the company with a 360-degree view.
This evaluation includes interviewing everyone possible inside your company, suppliers, customers, potential customers, lost customers and competitors.
It seeks to answer questions such as ”How lean is your company operating?” or “How efficient is your company operating?”
Once you understand how your company is doing within the context of your market, a clear picture emerges that allows you to know the precise phase of an economic cycle in which your company is operating. You also learn the degree to which your business is experiencing the economic slowdown or growth.
The next step is to understand how your market (customers) will evolve as the market cycles play out. Is your product or service offering going to be priced appropriately? Will the attributes of your product or service be valued the same?
Market slowdowns and growth cycles can be life-changing events. Technology, competition, customer needs, and resources evolve quickly.
Consider the interest in solar, wind, and other energy options and how they are being valued today compared to as little as two years ago. Look at how we listen to music compared to two years ago.
Once you understand your organization’s capabilities and how they relate to the changing needs and expectations of the market, you have the basis for developing a strategic plan of how to take advantage of the opportunities as they pertain to current and future markets within the scope of your organization’s capabilities.
If you are attempting to build a 10-story building, you need a 10-story foundation (engineering wise).
The same rule applies for any business that plans reproducible, balanced growth. That 10-story foundation needs to be in place before you start building that business.
That foundation includes financing for the increased accounts payables and receivables. It could mean increased inventory and any additional staffing or equipment as well as appropriate resources for the projected production capacity required for the realization of the strategic plan. All of this –– and more –– need to be in place before you start growing sales.
I once explained to a pharmaceutical company that they needed a third shift for a drug that was being relaunched. They told us they would open the third shift when the sales were strong enough. Sales increased. The third shift was implemented. But before it produced enough product, the retail and hospital pharmacies ran out.
The pipeline was empty and patients were being switched to another drug. Doctors made it clear that would not be tolerated in the future.
This is one of the reasons most companies fail during growth. The answer is to make sure a strong foundation (in the form of infrastructure and capabilities) is in place before starting to grow sales.
This is probably the most difficult of the three phases.
This phase requires changing behavior and pushing people out of their comfort zones.
No one writes a business plan expecting to fail. But most fail due to poor or no execution.
Make sure that your team has someone to watch from outside –– to make sure your team does not slip back into old habits or comfort zones.
At the same time, make sure there are appropriate metrics in place to help you stay on track.
We use custom dashboards as a means for providing up-to-the-minute feedback as to the condition of the business. The dashboards, with built-in metrics, take information from a variety of people and departments and reports to top management, department heads, and the outside coaching team.
The third year, the process begins again with Phase 1.
Change is a fact of life. It is also a fact of corporate life. Every company should create a three-year cycle for itself –– evaluating their organization and how relevant they are to their market today and in years to come.
By doing so, you are able to differentiate between the noises emanating from the press and the reality of your own organization, and to what it is telling them about the condition of their foundation, where they are today, and where they can be as the economy cycles.
John Daley is CEO of the Daley Institute for Business Transformation with offices in St. Louis and New York. Gil Effron is the managing director of the New York office. Among other strategies to build stronger foundations and bring about significant, balanced growth, the institute utilizes a team coaching approach –– many coaches coming from many business disciplines that work as a team.
The coaches may be reached at askthecoach@daleygroup.org.
© 2008 John R. Daley
First, how serious are you about changing your comfort zone? It took you a long time filled with trial, error and success to get to this point. You're successful right now at some level. Do you have it in you to get to the next level?
If you are serious about growing your business you have two choices:
· Changing you into what is necessary for the leadership of the next level of business
· Finding a professional manager.
The hardest thing for a coach is to help you be comfortable changing your behavior. Many coaching relationships fail due to the client getting uncomfortable being outside of their comfort zone. They may not be able to verbalize it but they will start to fight back and even end the relationship. Can you see why I ask how serious you are about change? I have seen owners tank their company after someone else grew sales and then left. In most cases it results in failure not just going back to the ole company.
· What got you here will not get you there
· You don’t know what you don’t know
· You and your company are either growing or dying, there is no in between
Find a coach that you are ...
]]> Find a coach that you are comfortable with, has been to the level of business you would like to get to and has the band width to get the job done. Remember not to confuse business coaching with product development or manufacturing. 70 to 80% of all business problems are common. 20% to 30% are specific to your product or service. 80% of the time business owners hire consultants for 20% of their problem. That's their comfort zone. Most consultants and some coaches will give a report and wish you well. Most reports are on shelves with no execution.
You need a CEO Coach with experience. You need a CFO Coach with experience. You need a Sales and Marketing Coach with experience. You need a Manufacturing Coach if you manufacturer. You need an HR Coach and possibly an Operations Coach! And on top of that they have to be your mentor and help you with the personal concerns.
Your coach’s job is to make YOU comfortable with the knowledge, skills and experience necessary to run your business at the next level, either running your business or managing a professional management team.
Consider if you don't change then your business will not change unless you take yourself out of the day to day operations and put in a professional manager. Not an entrepreneur but a professional manager. You become the investor with a professional management team.
Can one person do all the above? Many will say they can and many will try on your nickel. If you ask a CEO from a major company they wouldn't even consider the option.
Find a team of coaches that you trust to help you build your business to the level you envision. When you start getting uncomfortable and you will, you will trust them. Trust and confidence in the coach’s knowledge, skills and experience seem to be the key.
You will reach a new comfort zone with a more successful, valuable company.
The Daley Group, LLC is one of the few business coaching teams set up exactly that way. We are senior advisor/coaches that work as a team.
www.daleygroup.org
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Coach Daley
As a business coach I watch business organizations as a student. I'm always looking for the unique characteristics of successful (or unsuccessful) organizations and as you know it usually boils down to leadership. Nothing new… right? Look at sports; you can have great players and a manager that struggle to win. What about the gold medal winning US Hockey team with an outstanding coach but no superstars? One manager can be the biggest hindrance to success and that would be the "tribal manager". (The Strategic Partnering Handbook)
Remember, "Leaders" create a vision and are enthusiastically followed:
"Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Leaders create an environment where teams thrive and produce beyond even their expectations, managers without leadership skills stress teams out and so production is work, people do only do the minimum not to get fired and struggle to do that much." Coach Daley
"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." Max De Pree
"Managers" struggle with a sincere "thank you", because it could go to their subordinates head, make them think they are more important than they are to the manager, after all the subordinate is just completing tasks...their job... right? "Managers" dictate, intimidate and do things themselves. Why would they do things themselves? First to show the team they are not needed just tolerated. And secondly to show their superiors they can do the job themselves, matter a fact, they believe the team is taking the credit they should have. If they feel the superior is questioning who is the hero the manager will show them by doing the task themselves or moving some else to do it. It's just a task. This makes perfect sense if you consider they see their job as their career development, as the organization and implementation of tasks not leadership and development of people. They are the "alpha male" or female, they are always jockeying for political position and competing with their own team to show they are the superior and the manager. The scary thing with these managers is that they don't see this behavior. They tend to be very insecure and hence "Alpha males" are dangerous to any up and comers they see as a threat, how many future leaders can your organization afford to lose? My dad used to say watch what people do, not what they say. He must have had these managers in mind. Bottom line, first on their priority list is their status, second is positioning for their career growth, and last is tasks. People are necessary evils they have to put up with. These managers look at their subordinates from their (the manager) perspective. These managers love the line "Salary Continuation Plan!" "You should be glad to have your job." "Stay below the radar screen and complete your tasks as I laid them out!" "I can replace you tomorrow!"
If companies are successful due to people and they spend big bucks and time to hire the right people for the right jobs, create an environment for success (for each particular person) and reward them for successful performance (in a manner they see as a reward) than the above managers are not indicative of a successful company are they?
Consider a couple of facts:
· Most people leave do to their managers!
· Bad employees don't quit, where would they go?
· Leadership starts at the top and the corporate culture helps sustain Leadership (the opposite is also true)
Do you have a leadership problem?
In our workshops we teach to constantly observe, not to judge to quickly. Things are never black and white. Having said that ask yourselves the following questions and see if you have a trend that is costing your organization maximum performance and limiting your bottom line.
Do you possible have a leadership problem? Is it costing you at the bottom line? Would you like to learn more? www.daleygroup.org
]]>Life is like a big gym. When you're young you require specific direction, control and light weights. As you grow older the weights (challenges) get heavy and hopefully you get stronger and wiser. The control slowly diminishes. During your life in this gym (earth) you will have heavenly and earthly spotters and coaches. The role of the coach/spotter will evolve from dependence and concern to independence and pride. The coach/spotters only succeed when they provide healthy independence. Tough goal, dependence and control are much easier to handle but not the goal we've been given. It takes a strong confident coach to watch us fail and then coach us to success.
Challenges are not the only experience in our gym; we also experience love and friendship.
A successful well rounded coach will have a strong healthy family, strong friendships and great relationships with their coworkers. They have skill and heart to earn love and respect. I can’t think of anything more valuable.
This is the perspective I've been given for a successful life here on earth. I have been blessed with many great coaches and I greatly appreciate, love and respect each and every one of them. I am still striving for success.
Coach Daley
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How can a Football team get a new coaching staff for the same players and drastically improve their record? How can a large company get a new CEO for the same people and drastically improve their performance? Why will a “group of superstars” get beat by a team of average players? (US Hockey Team, 1980 Olympics) It’s the human affect, one plus one equals three.
When a business hires a new employee they evaluate the talent of that employee as they performed in past environments but do they evaluate the talent as they will perform with in the new organization. There are two elements in placing a human resource into a team. The team and the new hire together become a new team. Together the new hire and the team have to be better than either would have been separately. If we have a superstar but put them into a “toxic environment” they will under perform. If you hire a detractor and make them a member of a successful team that team will under perform. If the leadership allows the detractor to detract long enough the best and strongest teammates will leave and others will become toxic with the detractor. One plus one will equal 0!
When we work with a leader we ask them to close their eyes and think about their most challenging employee. Some of the expressions we see are amazing. We ask them if they think about any of their problem employees when they go home. What does that do to a manager’s performance at work and at home? We then ask them to think of their best employee. The smiles replace the tension and stress. If the leaders have that reaction wouldn’t you expect to get the same reaction from employees when asked about the leadership or fellow employees? Which situation is most likely to evoke The Human Element of One plus One equals Three and which probably equals .5 or less?
It is difficult to forecast the future performance of a team by their past record if you change one player or coach on the team. Statisticians will tell you the probabilities of future performance by their record only to have a new leader or team mate come in a break all records. They are a positive catalyst. Should the world be round, should airplanes fly or should we have walked on the moon? Not according to what we knew 100 years ago! Should we be walking around talking on cell phones or listening to IPods? Not according to what was believed to be fact 50 years ago. Could these have happened because of the Human Element of One plus one equals three?
The definition of leadership is getting things done through other people. Does the leadership place or remove obstacles to the success of the team. When a business finds a superstar will they want to be on their team? Will they stay? Does the leadership have a positive attitude and plan for the whole team to win? Does the team understand and buy into the leaders plan completely. Is the team a well run machine that functions better than any one member could by themselves. Is the team void of detractors? If so then The Human Element applies, One plus One equals Three. When you have a well run positive team your can expect your ROI to go off the scale and that is when visions and dreams become reality in spite of what history tell us should be possible.
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Perhaps the greatest challenge that you will ever face in life is the conquest of fear and the development of the habit of courage. Winston Churchill once wrote, "Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend." Fear is, and always has been, the greatest enemy of mankind. When Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," he was saying that the emotion of fear, rather than the reality of what we fear, is what causes us anxiety, stress, and unhappiness. When you develop the habit of courage and unshakable self-confidence, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you. Just think—what would you dare to dream, or be, or do, if you weren't afraid of anything in the whole world?
Fortunately, the habit of courage can be learned just as any other success skill is learned. To do so, we need to go to work systematically to diminish and eradicate our fears, while simultaneously building up the kind of courage that will enable us to deal with the inevitable ups and downs of life unafraid.
Syndicated columnist Ann Landers wrote these words: "If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it would be this: Expect trouble as an inevitable part of life, and when it comes, hold your head high. Look it squarely in the eye, and say, 'I will be bigger than you. You cannot defeat me.'" This is the kind of attitude that leads to victory.
The starting point in overcoming fear and developing courage is, first of all, to look at the factors that predispose us toward being afraid.
As we know, the root source of fear is childhood conditioning that caused us to experience two types of fear: the fear of failure, which causes us to think, "I can't, I can't, I can't"; and the fear of rejection, which causes us to think, "I have to, I have to, I have to."
Based on these fears, we become preoccupied with the idea of losing our money, or our time, or our emotional investment in a relationship. We become hypersensitive to the opinions and possible criticisms of others, sometimes to the point where we are afraid to do anything that anyone else might disapprove of. Our fears tend to paralyze us, holding us back from taking constructive action in the direction of our dreams and goals. We hesitate, we become indecisive and we procrastinate; we make excuses and find reasons not to move ahead. And finally, we feel frustrated, caught in the double bind of, "I have to, but I can't," or, "I can't, but I have to."
Fear is also caused by ignorance. When we have limited information, we tend to be tense and insecure about the outcome of our actions. Ignorance causes us to fear change, to fear the unknown and to avoid trying anything new or different. But the reverse is also true. The very act of gathering more and more information about a particular subject causes us to have more courage and confidence in that area. There are parts of your life where you have no fear at all because you feel knowledgeable and completely capable of handling whatever happens.
Another factor that causes fears is illness or fatigue. When we are tired or unwell, or when we are not physically fit, we are more predisposed to fear and doubt than when we are feeling healthy and happy and terrific about ourselves.
Once we've recognized the factors that can cause fear, the second step in overcoming fear is to sit down and take the time to objectively identify, define and analyze your own personal fears. At the top of a clean sheet of paper, write the question, "What am I afraid of?"
Now, before you begin, I need to make an important point: All intelligent people are afraid of something. It is normal and natural to be concerned about your physical, emotional and financial survival. The courageous person is not a person who is unafraid. As Mark Twain said, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear¾not absence of fear."
It is not whether or not you are afraid. We are all afraid. The question is, how do you deal with the fear? The courageous person is simply one who goes forward in spite of the fear. And here's something else I've learned: when you confront your fears and move toward what you are afraid of, your fears diminish and your self-esteem and self-confidence increase.
However, when you avoid the thing you fear, your fears grow until they begin to control every aspect of your life. And as your fears increase, your self-esteem, your self-confidence and your self-respect diminish accordingly.
Begin filling out your list of fears by writing down everything, major and minor, over which you experience any anxiety. The most common fears, of course, are the fear of failure and the fear of rejection.
Some people, compelled by the fear of failure, invest an enormous amount of energy justifying or covering up their mistakes. And some people, compelled by the fear of rejection, are so obsessed with how they appear to others that they seem to have no ability to take independent action at all. Until they are absolutely certain that someone else will approve, they refrain from doing anything. Once you have made a list of every fear that you think may be affecting your thinking and your behavior, organize the items in order of importance. Which fear do you feel has the greatest impact on your thinking, or holds you back more than any other? Which fear would be number two? What would be your third fear? And so on. With regard to your predominant fear, write the answers to these three questions:
1. How does this fear hold me back in life? 2. How does this fear help me, or how has it helped me in the past? 3. What would be my pay-off for eliminating this fear?
Some years ago, I went through this exercise and concluded that my biggest fear was the fear of poverty. I was afraid of not having enough money, being broke, perhaps even being destitute. I knew that this fear had originated during my childhood because my parents, who grew up during the Depression, had continually worried about money. My fear was reinforced when I was broke at various times during my 20s. I could objectively assess the origins of this fear, but it still had a strong hold on me. Even when I had sufficient money for all my needs, this fear was always there.
My answer to the question, "How does this fear hold me back?" was that it caused me to be anxious about taking risks with money. It caused me to play it safe with regard to employment. And it caused me to choose security over opportunity.
My answer to the second question, "How does this fear help me?" was that, in order to escape the fear of poverty, I had a tendency to work much longer and harder. I was more ambitious and determined. I took much more time to inform myself on the various ways that money could be invested. The fear of poverty was, in effect, driving me toward financial independence.
When I answered the third question, "What would be my pay-off for overcoming this fear?" I immediately saw that I would be willing to take more risks, I would be more aggressive in pursuing my financial goals, I could and would start my own business, and I would not be so tense and concerned about spending too much or having too little. I would no longer be so concerned about the price of everything. By objectively analyzing my biggest fear in this way, I was able to begin the process of eliminating it.
You can begin the process of developing courage and eliminating fear by engaging in actions consistent with the behaviors of courage and self-confidence. Anything that you practice over and over eventually becomes a new habit. So let's focus on some of the areas where you can practice to develop the habit of courage.
The first and perhaps most important kind of courage is the courage to begin, to launch, to step out in faith. This is the courage to try something new or different, to move out of your comfort zone, with no guarantee of success. John Ronstadt, a professor at Babson College who taught entrepreneurship for 12 years, conducted a study of those who took his class and later became successful. He could only find one quality that they had in common: their willingness to actually start their own business in the marketplace. He calls this the "Corridor Principle." He said that as these individuals moved forward, as though proceeding down a corridor, doors opened to them that they would not have seen if they had not been in forward motion. It turned out that the graduates of his entrepreneurship course who had done nothing with what they had learned were still waiting for things to be just right before they began. They were unwilling to launch themselves down the corridor of uncertainty until they could somehow be assured that they would be successful¾something which never happened.
The future belongs to the risk takers, not the security seekers. Life is perverse in the sense that, the more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire. One way to get the courage to begin, from which everything else flows, is to plan and prepare thoroughly in advance. Set clear goals and objectives, then gather information. Read and research in your chosen field. Write out detailed plans of action, and then take the first step.
The second kind of courage is the courage to endure, to persist, to stay at it once you have begun. Persistence is a form of courageous patience, and it is one of the rarest types of courage. Courageous patience is having the ability to stand firm after you have taken action and before you get any feedback or results from your actions. When you plan your work and work your plan through patient persistence, even in the face of disappointment and unexpected setbacks, you will build and develop the quality of courage within you.
Whenever you feel fear or anxiety, and you need to bolster your courage to endure, switch your attention to your goals. Create a mental picture of the person that you would like to be, performing the way you would like to perform. There is nothing wrong with thoughts of fear as long as you temper them with thoughts of courage and self-reliance. Whatever you dwell upon, grows . . . so be careful.
The last type of courage is the courage to conquer worry—a form of negative goal-setting. It is dwelling upon, talking about, and vividly imagining exactly what you don't want to happen. If you worry long enough and hard enough about something, you are going to attract it into your life. The great tragedy is that even if the situation you are worrying about does not materialize, your health and your emotions will suffer just the same. And the fact is that most of things that people worry about never happen.
The only real antitode to worry is purposeful action toward a predetermined goal or solution. Since the conscious mind can only hold one thought at a time, when you get busy doing something to resolve your problem, you will not have the time or the mental capacity to worry. And before you know it, your worrysome situation will have been resolved.
The mastery of fear and the development of courage are essential prerequisites for a happy, successful life. With a commitment to acquire the habit of courage, you will eventually reach the point where your fears no longer play a major role in your decision-making. You will set big, challenging, exciting goals, and you will have the confidence of knowing that you can attain them. You will be able to face every situation with calmness and self-assurance. And the key is courage.
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